Hello, okorder.com. Look at some videos ( There are few hundred of them ) Basically though they all stay with the same idea or plan. Look at how they wire them and get more familiar with what they are running on them depending upon how much wattage panel they are running. I seen a 400 watt system costing about 600 dollars US currency. Because two 200 watt panels = 50.00 each and the diverter = 50 and the charge controller = another 50.00 at the least. Then you have wiring and some deep cycle 2 or 6 volt batteries to loop up which is extra cost if none laying around to use. Check-out youtube though for the best advice and opinion you can give yourself then maybe look at a few solar panel websites which sell Solar kits for some more price ideas. To run a laptop i assume you will need atleast 400 watts and 2 to 4 ,twelve volt batteries which are deep cycle and it might take 3 to 5 days to charge up your batteries but they should charge laptop battery no problem without much loss if you keep laptop charged often. TV is power hungry and you will need something like a $500.00 system for that. 000 watts etc. Tv just drains the battery bank way too fast. So to answer your question about what you can get for 200 bucks. Maybe a 80 watt kit system for about 250 bucks complete except batteries. with 80 watts you could power some cool nighttime night lighting with super bright LEDS or LED light strips which are about 0.3 watts per LED or 5 watt LED cabinet lights work well So for a 80 watt system you probably only want one 2 volt battery or else will take alot longer to charge on such low wattage. But you could run LED lighting for nighttime lighting and easily save 250 dollars in a year off your bill by charging phone from it, using LED lights and other low wattage devices if utilized daily. Just don't draw more power than it makes and it should be ok. Goodluck with your research.

Q:Can I build my own Hot Water Solar Panels?

I worked for a plumbing service that offered hot water solar panel installs and replacements. I've replaced perfectly good solar panels for people who wanted to upgrade to the latest. We had piles and piles of panels out behind the shop. We use to scrap the copper and sell the glass panes. A few people would ask to scavenge panels and the boss would let them have it cheap, just to move some of the stuff. I would do the same. I'd find a local installer and see what they do with the leftovers. Chances are, if you searched diligently, you could probably find panels in good shape and use them to supplement your energy usage. Bear in mind, solar hot water system are very different from standard systems. They usually have a much larger storage tank. Typically 80-20 gallons compared to 40. They have a circulating pump and temperature sensors to move the heated water from the panel into the tank. These larger hot water heaters/tanks have much better storage and insulation to keep the water temperature that is generated during the day to last into the evening when people are home to use the shower and wash clothes to take advantage of solar heat. It's not just a matter of getting a panel and slapping it up. There's are technical aspects that need to be followed and if you don't know them, I would advise against doing it yourself. Study up on it and see if it's something you want to tackle on your own before you go too far doing legwork to find out details that might be cost prohibitive or too complicated. Good luck.

Q:What ever happened to solar powered panels?

The technology did not die out. It is in fact quite alive and well, and there exist many different manufacturers of solar panels and devices utilizing them. The problem is that the technology has not yet advanced sufficiently to generate large amounts of power with solar panels, at least not with panels of any practical size and weight. You can easily buy a panel which will trickle-charge your car's battery during the day, but nothing that can generate anywhere near the power required to actually move a car's mass at any significant speed. You would need to buy panels with a very large surface area to make any significant amount of power, and these panels would be very heavy and very expensive.

Q:Why did the voltage of a solar panel drop significantly after putting it through a step down voltage regulator?

you cannot treat the open circuit voltage of a solar panel like a voltage source (like a battery.) the load response of the panel doesn't behave that way. small panels and panels that are producing less than about .5A are very happy to have their output voltage pulled down to whatever they're connected to (typically zero.) I observed the same phenomenon when i connected a 2V 725mA panel to a 2V 325mA fan -- the open circuit voltage of 5V dropped to 3V when connected to the fan, and returned to 5V when disconnected. The easiest workaround is to use 2V of rechargable batteries in parallel with the panel so that the battery holds the 2V potential difference and the panel just supplies the current. any excess current charges the batteries, so you might consider whether or not you need some type of charge controller to prevent burning the batteries via overcharging. there are actually very few applications of solar panels connected directly to circuits that i have seen that have any kind of robust performance -- if they work at all, they eventually die/burn themselves out in a couple of months. the best robust designs always have a rechargable battery and charge controller somewhere in the power circuitry to buffer the load circuit from the panel. .

Q:were can i buy decent solar panels?

Your best bet would be to go down to a place that has magazines and look through their solar magazines, like Solar Today and Home Power. In these you'll will find many places online where you can buy solar and wind power products. They also have good reviews so that you can be an informed consumer and don't end up buying poor quality products. I've seen performance reviews on a variety of models.

Q:What would be a good battery for this solar panel?

If you are at a location/time where the panel will put out less power, you can adjust the battery size accordingly. And running a battery to empty is very bad for it's service life, so it's better to go a bit bigger.

Q:Do solar panels keep a structure cooler?

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Q:can solar power panels installed at home provide enough electricity to power house hold appliances?

They can but it takes a lot of panels. A home averages about kw power. Peak power is higher (3-6 kw) but you can handle that with load leveling storage batteries. The total maximum solar flux is about kw/square yard (or square meter). Solar panels are around 0% efficient. Because the Sun travels across the sky, the overall power is about /2 this maximum but then ony during the day (/2 the time). Since you need to recharge your batteries for nighttime, etc. and battery charging is about 50% you lose abother factor of two. So, assuming the Sun shines every day, you can power your house on 80 square yards (700 square feet of solar panels). This is still very rare because the investment in solar panels, batteries, converters, etc. far outweighs what you spend for commercial electricity.

Q:solar panel inverters?

Stand Alone solar panel inverters function to change direct current (DC) from a battery to Alternating Current (AC). Stand alone inverters, which range from around 00 watts to as much as 8000 watts, are used to power a vast variety of personal or small business projects. Lower watt stand-alone inverters are often used to power laptop computers, whereas high-watt stand-alone inverters could be used to help power an entire household. In order to calculate what class of inverter you need for use with your solar panel, you will first have to determine the maximum sum of all of the Alternating Current loads in your project (or home). How to calculate the wattage you need from your stand-alone solar panel inverter

Q:Chem question regarding using solar panels ....?

It is not that simple. There are 3 main types of solar cells. Monocrystalline silicon is the most efficient and produces the smallest solar cells, and therefore the smallest panels. Poly-crystalline (or multi-crystalline) silicon produces the next most efficient type of cells and are a popular choice. Amorphous (or thin-film) silicon uses the least amount of silicon and also produces the least efficient solar cells. This means thin film system take up more area than the other two; an important factor to consider in relation to possible future upgrades; i.e. if you'll have enough space left to do so. The North (in the Southern hemisphere) or South (in the Northern hemisphere) facing roof collects the most energy. So this biases the roof area required. Your energy usage can be changed. Hot water (a major energy user) could be better using direct solar heating with peak demand boosting, either from mains or solar. There are other possibilities, either to reduce demand or to provide energy from other sources. Not all sunshine hours are equal. Hours around midday are far more productive than hours later in the day. This must be factored in.